On October 24, we learned from VPO, a electronic atomization technology company, that the company has recently Series A+ financing round, which is jointly invested by new strategic investors and Heading Century.
Hao Xiaomeng, founder of VPO, said that after the financing, VPO will launch the brand 2.0 strategy, consolidate the strength of products and supply chain, serve Chinese smokers with better quality and safety products and brands, and meet the new requirements of supervision and quality. At the same time, it will accelerate the three-dimensional strategic layout of channels, promote the urban partnership plan, and plan to open 1000 VPO stores nationwide.
VPO once closed ten million yuan pre-A angel financing round in March, and 30 million yuan Series A funding round in April, with the investor jointly investing in Heading Century and Maoxin capital.
With the accelerated entry of domestic capital and entrepreneurs, the competition of electronic atomizer brand for online and offline channels is increasingly fierce, and the products tend to be homogeneous. With the increasingly severe regulatory policies in the electronic cigarette industry, the brand of electronic atomizer will usher in a new era of 2.0, that is, high quality, safety and patent requirements.
VPO chooses to cooperate with Shenzhen First Union Technology Co., Ltd., a well-known domestic atomizer supplier, to build a high standard atomizer laboratory. In order to meet the strong standard requirements of the new national standard, VPO product 2.0 system will be launched. It’s reported Myst Labs is also collaborating with First Union.
First Union is a well-known e-cigarette manufacturing, R & D and vaping manufacturing group in China, with strong R & D strength and profound professional technology, serving British American tobacco, Imperial Tobacco, PMI and other world-class tobacco groups. This time, it will work with VPO to launch a number of upgraded products.
It is reported that the upgraded product launched by both parties first is V Cool disposable vape pen.
V Cool comes with a 370mah large capacity battery, which can support 400 puffs and comes with more than 10 flavors. It can meet the needs of consumers’ different taste and restore the real tobacco’s throat hit feeling.
VPO will also launch the 7.98mm ultra-thin pod system series products at the same time, including entry-level wake-up suit, dazzling color glow, professional version glow and other series to provide more consumers with a variety of pod system options, to meet the needs of VPO online and offline Omni channel system and users. The new products are designed by the top domestic FMCG designers.
It is reported that the VPO full range of upgraded products will be officially released at IECIE Shanghai vape culture week on October 30. More technology and product highlights will also be announced on site, and celebrities in various fields in China will be invited to jointly promote and officially launch the VPO brand 2.0 upgrade.
VPO has been focusing on offline retail channels for FMCG and scenario consumption for nearly a year. At present, it has completed the settlement of hundreds of convenience store systems and laid more than 20000 stores. Its penetration rate in the omni sales channel system is increasing.
However, VPO believes that this is not enough, and that the growth of convenience store costs and mobile sales have been unable to support the sales scenario of pod system products, so VPO decides to speed up the pace of self built channels, and will work with several advantageous channel partners to jointly build VPO brand stores in shopping centers and pedestrian streets in the future, and it is expected to open 1000 VPO stores nationwide in 2019-2020.
In order to strengthen the cultivation and establishment of channels and make dealers and partners win-win development, after this financing, VPO will launch a thousand stores subsidy plan to support dealers and partners.
This is also VPO’s channel planning and product layout at the supply chain end. For the market that is about to face new supervision and an e-cig thousand regiments battle, only high-quality products and csales hannel teams have a better chance to win. VPO wants to create greater synergy with the strength of high-quality supply chain through channel advantages.
It is revealed that this round of financing will be spent on continuously R & D and investment in product safety and performance upgrading, and adhere to the research and development of atomized products for safety and harm reduction.
